:(

Even though I was interested in the topic, the sheer length of the first two chapters made me want to commit readicide halfway through.

Much of that feeling was due to the fact that Gallagher is preaching to the choir, at least when I'm the one reading. For the last couple years I've been planning to take the Social Studies Praxis exam when I graduate so I can be certified in both English and Social Studies. While part of that is a way to (maybe) increase my chances of finding a job, the other part is that I'm interested in history (and, to a lesser extent, the other aspects of Social Studies). That being the case, I included texts on the American Revolution and the web collective Anonymous as reading in my conceptual unit. These are real-life examples of some of the topics covered in Fahrenheit 451. I'm all about putting real-world texts in the classroom, because I know that many people lack information on many fronts. CNN.com and the front page of Yahoo aren't in everyone's "Wanna Waste Time?" bookmarks.

That being said, I love the idea of the Article of the Week, and I would love to be able to require SSR on Fridays (though the classes at the end of the day might need that moved to Mondays...or I could just move it there for everyone).  I know that there will be some push against that idea, but one of my high school teachers used to play a class game of Taboo with us on Fridays; as an administrator, I'd be much more apt to think, "But that's a game," than, "Why are they reading?" (I'm not saying Taboo has no merit. It does.) Something else I'm trying to do is work off the Khan Academy model and move all of my parts-of-speech instruction outside of the classroom and work on practice inside it--maybe using the AoW as a basis for the sentences we'll break down.

The idea about using Amazon to build a classroom library is a great idea, too. No one wants to be "that guy" and push and push for things in department meetings and planning centers, which is likely a large part of the reason that schools are lacking in positive change. The Amazon library avoids that issue totally. I actually ask for people to buy my birthday and Christmas presents (I feel awkward mentioning my own "birthday and Christmas presents" at 22-years-old. Huh.) used on Amazon. Why? Well I'll be honest--I can get more of them that way. Do I want Patton Oswalt's Zombie Spaceship Wasteland for $18 or for $6? Duh.

So basically, I'm all in. I just wish there had been a SparkNotes version of the first two chapters, because I really didn't need to be convinced.